Jersey boy.

We are underway southbound on the Delaware Bay, bound for Cape May, New Jersey. We've had a string of excellent travel condition days and have been using them to make tracks, but that will come to an end here and we will likely be pinned down in Cape May for a while as we wait on an outside window to make progress in the Atlantic Ocean.

Vector staring down the Hooper Island Light. "This is a lighthouse, mate. Your call."

When last I posted here, we were docked at the Reedville Market restaurant in Reedville, Virginia. After dinner we had a nice walk to the end of the peninsula and back, and I went as far as the main road north of town. Absolutely everything in Reedville is closed Monday, and I was halfway through my walk when it occurred to me that we could have landed the scooters and ridden someplace else. There are a couple of Mexican joints in Burgess, about a six mile ride.

Our view from the Reedville Market dock.

We had another short walk in the morning, after the rain ended, before shoving off. Before reaching Smith Point, Louise spotted something bobbing in the water, and through our binoculars we could tell it was a deceased dolphin. I radioed the Coast Guard to see if that required a report; it did, and they took all our information. Later the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response unit called me to get more details.

The lone gas station and mini mart in Reedville closed long ago. Not one graffito.

I was on the phone with them just as we were passing "Hannibal Target," where we were strafed by a jet fighter maybe 300' off the deck. This is a US Navy live-fire training target, and we were just outside the no-entry security zone. The phone call kept me from snapping a photo of the jet, but I got some of the USAS American Mariner, the Liberty ship scuttled here as a training target after the USS Hannibal had basically been obliterated by the elements and decades of live fire. We've seen her from a distance many times; this is the first time we've ever passed at just a half mile.

The remains of USAS American Mariner, nearly clove in two.

Going around the target was only a minor deviation from our straight-line course to the Honga River entrance, where we curved around to the east side of Hoopers Island and dropped the hook (map). There is nothing ashore here, so I grilled some chicken on board. This first comfortable anchorage in the river put us just a short ride from Hoopersville, and after dinner we splashed the tender and landed at the boat ramp there just to get a little walk in. We decked the tender as soon as we returned.

Wednesday we had a quiet morning at home. Louise had been in contact with the Hooper Island Light folks and they did not expect to arrive at the lighthouse until noon. With a two-hour cruise to get there, we left close to 11 to make sure they had a good head start and would be settled in by the time we arrived. That proved wise; as we approached the light maybe a half hour out it looked deserted, and we were nearly on top of it when we saw the crew zipping out in their Highfield RIB from the marina at the other end of Hooper Island. They arrived just ahead of us.

The lighthouse guys sent us a few drone shots. Photo: Rich Cucé

We sounded a Captain's Salute on the Kahlenbergs and dropped the hook 200 yards off the light. We tendered over to the base and spent about a half hour chatting with them from the dink. As we expected, insurance limitations precluded an actual visit. Louise has been supporting these guys on Patreon for a while, and it was great to meet Thomas and Rich and catch up a little before moving along. You can find their work on the Hooper Island and Wolf Trap lighthouses over on YouTube, here.

The small basin in Hoopersville hosts a fleet of crab boats, and will host pleasure craft of shallow draft.

After leaving the lighthouse we had a two-hour cruise to Solomons, where we dropped the hook in our preferred spot near the island known as Molly's Leg (map). We tendered over to the Island Hideaway for dinner, even splurging on a decadent dessert. This has become our favorite place on the island, and the food was good as usual. After dinner we strolled the riverfront a bit before heading home.

We left the dinghy in the water overnight, contemplating spending an extra day. A vibration is telling me I need to adjust the engine alignment since doing the transmission work, sooner rather than later, and I thought this would be a good place. But after looking at the weather and the prospects of busy waterways and anchorages for the holiday weekend, we decided to keep moving and do the work in Cape May instead.

A fellow boater at one of the docks sent us some pics. Sunset in Solomons. Photo: Liz Marks

Thus it was that we left first thing Thursday to have some fair tide to Annapolis. I would have skipped Annapolis altogether this time, except for the fact that it was the only reasonable UPS Access Point and that's where I had Spurs ship the line cutter parts. Amazon also insisted I pick a specific UPS store to return the bolts I did not need for the damper plate, and I chose one here.

Our anchorage off Hooper Island. There is nothing on the island to even provide a wind break.

Leaving Solomons we found ourselves in a conga line of northbound boats, including a phalanx of long-range trawlers that included a big Selene, two Nordys, and our friends on Vahevala, a steel hull similar to Vector. We had to alter course a bit to be overtaken by USNS Charlton, whom I had seen on the scope about twenty minutes out. Evidently, many of the conga line were caught unawares and had to scramble out of her way, just as the downbound bulker Macheras was passing. We chuckled when the pilot of the Charlton, making arrangements with Macheras, said "I'm navigating a flotilla here, so you have that to look forward to."

We arrived to Annapolis after 4pm, and opted to drop the hook in the choppy harbor rather than our preferred spot on Weems Creek, on account of the errands. We had the usual hunt through the borrow pits before finding a safe spot (map). As usual, the gaggle of racing sailboats passed us close aboard in the evening on their way back to the barn; right now we have sailboat impact PTSD and Louise watched them carefully from the pilothouse.

USNS Charlton overtaking us. I altered course 20 minutes ahead to be this far out of the way.

To get to the UPS store for my Amazon return we tendered to a new landing for us, at the end of Burnside Street, west of the Spa Creek drawbridge. That made it about a half mile walk to the shopping center, where we had a nice plate of ribs at Adams Taphouse. I was able to walk over to the UPS store before they closed while Louise finished her beer. There are no tourists in this joint.

Vector in Solomons at night. Photo: Liz Marks

On the way back to Vector we detoured down Ego Alley to the town dinghy dock, where I walked the two blocks to the CVS to pick up my Spurs parts. Even after dinner the temperature was in the high 80s, and with all the walking Louise hit her heat limit and waited for me in the air conditioning at Chipotle with a cold drink. We were back at Vector after only a little more than an hour or so ashore, and decked the tender for an early start. We have several friends in Annapolis, but with the late arrival, errands, and early departure we did not reach out to any. It was a pitchy, rolly night in the harbor, and in hindsight we should have gone to Weems and landed the e-bike ashore for the errands, but beach landings are never my first choice for that.

Yesterday morning we got an early start to catch the last of the flood. Before reaching the Bay Bridge we passed a crane moving giant roadway sections between barges. They looked shop-worn, not new, and we wondered if they were wreckage from the Key Bridge. As we passed under the bridge, we were whizzing right along at nearly max flood.

A barge full of old road deck segments, complete with Jersey barriers.

I had figured we'd make it only as far as the Bohemia River, but after passing the Patapsco we realized we'd have fair or slack current all the way to the canal, and we decided to press on to Chesapeake City. We ran out of push just past the canal entrance, and the last hour was a slog against the current, but we had the hook down in the Chesapeake City Anchorage Basin (map) before 3pm. The anchorage was quite full when we arrived, and even more so by nightfall.

An upscale candy store has recently opened in the old bank in Chesapeake City.

Weekend nights are something of a zoo here in the summer. Live music at The Deck at the Chesapeake Inn, Rummur outdoor rum bar at the Inn at the Canal, and Schaeffer's deck across the canal all compete for the ear, and if you stand on the town dock you get an interference pattern. We had a nice dinner on The Deck while it was still the quieter warm-up duo; the six-piece band complete with saxophone was much louder and we enjoyed the music of our era from the comfort of our own boat.

We had a nice walk around town and also offloaded the trash and recycling before returning to Vector and decking the tender, ahead of a forecast thunderstorm. That storm fizzled out just before reaching us, leaving all three music venues unscathed and the myriad open small boats that arrive every weekend evening mostly dry. After the music stopped at 11 we had a quiet and comfortable night, although I noticed a passing RoRo in the canal moved us a good 40' or so across our swing circle as it went by.

This photo does not really convey how crazy it is at the Chesapeake Inn on a warm Friday evening.

We seldom go all the way to Cape May from Chesapeake City. But today we had to make a very early start if we wanted any fair tide at all, and the math, coupled with the scarcity of anchorages, made it work out to do the whole stretch in one day. That means pushing through one entire flood but getting the benefit of most of two ebbs, so it all works out in the end. During the flood the plotter was giving me arrival times of 8pm, but now that we're into the final ebb the time is right around 5:15.

Unless the forecast changes, we'll be pinned down in Cape May for a few days, and I hope to align the engine and get a few other projects that have been backing up knocked out. My next post will be northbound in the Atlantic Ocean, whenever that may be.